Treaty of Nice

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the statement by Baroness Scotland of Asthal on 6 February (H.L. Deb., col. 1047) that the final version of the Nice Treaty is to be signed in Nice on 26 February: (a) what is the present legal status of the documents signed at the Inter-Governmental Conference in Nice in December 2000; (b) what are the differences between those documents and the documents to be signed on 26 February; (c) how were any changes between the two agreed; and (d) what would be the effect of the United Kingdom withholding its signature on 26 February.

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: Document SN 1247/1/01 REV1 contains the text of the Treaty of Nice in its definitive form. That text was signed in Nice on 26 February and is available in the Libraries of both Houses.
	Following the Nice European Council, minor changes were made to the draft treaty at the meetings of the Permanent Representatives Committee on 20 and 21 December. These addressed inconsistencies in the text and between language versions and provided legal clarification of the decisions taken. The text was then finalised from a technical and linguistic point of view by the lawyer-linguists of the Council in conjunction with lawyers from the member states.
	For the Treaty of Nice to enter into force it must be signed and ratified by all the member states. Therefore if the UK had not signed and did not go on to ratify the treaty it could not enter into force. The Government did not withhold their signature and will introduce legislation to enable them to ratify the treaty.

Subsidiarity and the Single Market

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether the principle of subsidiarity applies to European Single Market Legislation.

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: Article 5 of the treaty establishing the European Community provides that the principle of subsidiarity applies to all Community legislation except for any which comes within the exclusive competence of the Community. Single market legislation does not fall within the exclusive competence of the Community and therefore the principle of subsidiarity applies to it.

Luxembourg Compromise

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What is the present status in European law of the Luxembourg Compromise.

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: The Luxembourg Compromise derives from a political agreement reached in 1966. It has never appeared in the Community treaties and has no formal legal status.

Israel: Land for Peace Negotiations

Lord Moynihan: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What representations they have made to Ariel Sharon as Prime Minister of Israel to continue the land for peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: The Prime Minister has urged the Israeli Prime Minister elect, General Sharon, to work for a negotiated peace on the agreed basis of United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. The Foreign Secretary and the Minister of State, Brian Wilson, and the noble Lord, Lord Levy, as the Prime Minister's personal envoy, have reinforced this message in discussions with representatives of the new administration.

Title IV of EC Treaty

Baroness Harris of Richmond: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the Written Answer by Lord Bassam of Brighton on 6 February (WA 93), in respect of which specific proposals under Title IV of the EC Treaty they have notified their intention to participate in adoption and application

Lord Bassam of Brighton: The policy of the United Kindom towards participating in measures under Title IV of the treaty establishing the European Community is to review each proposed measure individually and to opt in when it is in the interests of the UK to do so. In a reply to a Written Question from the honourable Member for Penrith and the Borders (David Maclean) in another place on 12 March 1999 (Official Report, col. 380) the Home Secretary confirmed his statement that day at the Justice and Home Affairs Council that, while we would maintain our frontier controls in line with the Amsterdam Treaty Protocol, we wished to co-operate in all other justice and home affairs areas which did not conflict with this objective. In relation to Title IV, the Home Secretary highlighted areas in which the UK would look to participate as asylum and civil judicial co-operation measures and measures to control illegal immigration where these did not conflict with maintenance of national immigration controls. In accordance with these stated principles, the UK has notified its intention under Article 3 of the Protocol on the position of the United Kingdom and Ireland to participate in the application and adoption of the following proposed measures under Title IV of the treaty establishing the European Community: Asylum and Immigration Measures
	Regulation: Commission proposal for a Council regulation concerning the establishment of "Eurodac" for the comparison of the fingerprints of applicants for asylum and certain other aliens (title subsequently amended to "Council Regulation concerning the establishment of 'Eurodac' for the comparison of fingerprints for the effective application of the Dublin Convention")
	Directives: Initiative of the French Republic for a Council Directive defining the facilitation of unauthorised entry, movement and residence;
	Commission proposal for a Council Directive on minimum standards on procedures in member states for granting and withdrawing refugee status;
	Initiative of the French Republic for a Council Directive concerning the harmonisation of financial penalties imposed on carriers transporting into the territory of the member states third country nationals not in possession of the documents necessary for admission;
	Initiative of the French Republic for a Council Directive on mutual recognition of decisions concerning expulsion of third country nationals;
	Commission proposal for a Council Directive on minimum standards for giving temporary protection in the event of a mass influx of displaced persons and on measures promoting a balance between member states in receiving such persons and bearing the consequences thereof. Decision
	Commission proposal for a Council Decision establishing a European Refugee Fund. External measures
	Commission proposal for a Council Decision on the conclusion of an agreement between the European Community and Republic of Iceland and Kingdom of Norway concerning the criteria and mechanisms for establishing the state responsible for examining a request for asylum lodged in a member state or Iceland or Norway. (The UK also notified its intention to participate at an earlier stage when the Commission brought forward its proposal for a negotiating mandate.)
	Recommendations for Council Decisions authorising the Commission to negotiate readmission agreements with Sri Lanka, the Kingdom of Morocco, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Russian Federation. Civil Judicial Co-operation Measures
	Regulations: Commission proposal for a Council Regulation (Brussels I) on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters;
	Initiative of the French Republic for a Council regulation on the mutual enforcement of judgments on rights of access to children (Brussels IIbis);
	Initiative of the Federal Republic of Germany for a Council regulation on co-operation between the courts of the member states in taking evidence in civil and commercial matters;
	Commission proposal for a Council regulation extending the programmes of incentives and exchanges for legal practitioners in the area of civil law (Grotius--Civil);
	Initiative of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Finland for a Council regulation on insolvency proceedings;
	Commission proposal for a Council regulation on the service in the member states of judicial and extrajudicial documents in civil or commercial matters;
	Commission proposal for Council regulation (Brussels II) on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters and in matters of parental responsibility for joint children.
	Decision: Commission proposal for a Council Decision establishing a European judicial network in civil and commercial matters.

Arkady Gaidamak

Lord Avebury: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	On what basis Mr Arkady Gaidamak was given indefinite leave to remain in the United Kingdom and on what date; and whether they have now received an international warrant for his arrest, issued by a French magistrate.

Lord Bassam of Brighton: Information about an individual's immigration status is treated as confidential. As regards whether an international arrest warrant has been received, it is our long-established policy neither to confirm nor deny whether such a warrant has been received. The issue of an international arrest warrant is a matter for the issuing state to comment on.

Asylum Applicants: Explanatory Notes

Lord Hylton: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether explanatory notes in asylum applicants' own languages are being given at the same time as the statement of evidence form; and, if not, when this will be done.

Lord Bassam of Brighton: The statement of evidence form is currently accompanied by explanatory notes in English. These notes are being revised and translated into the main languages spoken by applicants from the prinicpal counries of origin. The first group of revised and translated documents will be available by the end of March.

Immigration and Advisory Service: Funding

Lord Dholakia: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What is the likely effect on the staffing structure of the Immigration Advisory Service if the present level of funding cannot be maintained; and
	What is the likely effect on the Immigration Advisory Service if the present level of funding cannot be maintained.

Lord Bassam of Brighton: This is a matter for the chief executive and board of trustees of the Immigration Advisory Service.

Prison Population

Lord Lester of Herne Hill: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What is their estimate of the size of the prison population in England and Wales over the next 10 years; and what is their estimate of the public expenditure to be incurred in housing the prison population over that period of time.

Lord Bassam of Brighton: Revised projections of the prison population in England and Wales in December 2000 are set out in the table. The information requested can also be found in Prison Population Brief December 2000, summarised on the Internet at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/prisdec00.pdf
	The table provides the annual projected prison population to 2007 based on three scenarios. These scenarios are:
	Higher variant: Assumes custody rates increase by 0.6 per cent per year for males and 1 per cent a year for females and that average sentence lengths increase annually by 1.5 per cent for males and 2 per cent for females.
	Central variant: Assumes custody rates increase as above but average sentence lengths remain at 1999 levels.
	Lower variant: Assumes custody levels and average sentence lengths remain at 1999 levels.
	The projections also take into account known legislative and policy changes as well as short-term fluctuations in the prison population. Projections are restricted to eight years ahead because beyond that projecting the prison population becomes too uncertain.
	The Prison Service's funding baseline is sufficient to meet the higher population projection for the next three years. As part of the baseline, the 2000 Spending Review settlement included £103 million/£105 million/£69 million over the next three years to provide additional capacity of 2,600 to meet this projected population. Funding beyond the next three financial years will be determined by future spending reviews.
	
		
			  1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 
			 Higher variant 
			 Total 64,800 64,600 65,000 67,100 71,700 74,000 75,900 77,400 79,200 
			 Male 61,500 61,300 61,700 63,700 67,500 69,700 71,600 73,000 74,000 
			 Female 3,200 3,300 3,400 3,400 4,200 4,300 4,300 4,400 4,500 
			  
			 Central variant 
			 Total 64,800 64,600 64,300 66,000 68,000 69,400 75,000 71,700 72,700 
			 Male 61,500 61,300 61,000 62,700 64,300 65,600 66,700 67,800 68,700 
			 Female 3,200 3,300 3,300 3,300 3,700 3,800 3,800 3,900 4,000 
			  
			 Lower variant 
			 Total 64,800 64,600 63,800 65,200 65,800 66,700 67,600 68,400 69,000 
			 Male 61,500 61,300 60,500 61,900 62,200 63,000 63,900 64,600 65,200 
			 Female 3,200 3,300 3,300 3,300 3,600 3,700 3,700 3,800 3,800 
		
	
	Note:
	All figures relate to the projected prison population on the last day in June of each year. The male and female figures may not sum to the totals due to rounding.

Oakington Reception Centre

Lord Avebury: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they will publish periodic reports on Oakington Reception Centre, giving the number of people processed; their nationalities; the number who are granted asylum and exceptional leave to remain respectively; the number of people who disappear after being granted temporary admission; the number whose appeals are successful or whose applications are conceded before their appeals are heard; and the number who are transferred to detention centres or prisons.

Lord Bassam of Brighton: We have no present plans to do so but will consider what information might be published routinely in due course.

Oakington Reception Centre

Lord Avebury: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What is the estimated cost of running Oakington Reception Centre in the first year of its operation; and how many asylum seekers they expect to accommodate at Oakington over this period.

Lord Bassam of Brighton: The estimated cost of running Oakington in the first year of operation is £12.8 million, with a further £2.8 million capital expenditure expected to arise during the same period. It is anticipated that, following the gradual expansion of capacity throughout the year, around 5,000 principal asylum applicants plus 1,000 dependants will have been accommodated at Oakington during this period.

Oakington Reception Centre

Lord Avebury: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	How many families, after being detained at Oakington, have been split up by detaining the head of household and releasing the dependants to a location beyond reasonable visiting distance, up to the latest convenient date.

Lord Bassam of Brighton: This information is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Strategic Communications Unit: Prime Minister's Webcasts

The Earl of Northesk: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether the Strategic Communications Unit is responsible for the webcasts by the Prime Minister from Downing Street.

Lord Falconer of Thoroton: The Strategic Communications Unit is responsible for the Downing Street website; the Prime Minister's webcasts are published on that site.

Redundancy Notification

Lord Wedderburn of Charlton: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What directions have been given under Section 193(4) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1992 in respect of the form of, and required particulars in, obligatory notifications by employers to the Secretary of State of proposed redundancies.

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: Form HR1, copies of which are available from my department's Redundacy Payments Service, sets out the information employers are required to give in notifications under Section 193(4) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. I have arranged for a copy of the form to be placed in the Libraries of both Houses. Notifications may also be submitted by any other form of written communication, provided the same information is given.

Redundancy Notification

Lord Wedderburn of Charlton: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	(a) What steps they take to ensure that a copy of a notice, given to the Secretary of State by virtue of Section 193 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 by an employer concerning forthcoming redundancies, is given to representatives of the affected employees or the relevant trade union; (b) How many such notices were given in the years 1998, 1999 and 2000 and the first two months of 2001; (c) What were the sectors of industry or employment connected with those notices and the date on which each was given; (d) How many such notices were affected by special circumstances within the meaning of the section; and (e) Whether the Secretary of State has given any general or special directions under Section 194 of the Act to any person in respect of prosecution of defaulting employers, and, if so, to whom.

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: Although there is no express provision for my department to enforce this requirement, employers giving notice to my department, under Section 193 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, of proposed redundancies are reminded of their obligation to copy such a notice to representatives of the employees being consulted and to declare the date on which, and with whom, consultation commenced on form HR1. The operation of this requirement is being considered in the context of the current review of the collective redundancy provisions. The number of notifications received by my department for the years 1998, 1999 and 2000 and the first two months of 2001 were 4,017, 4,189 and 4,418 and 709 respectively. Information on the sectors of industry connected with those notices will have to be compiled from the records of the Redundancy Payments Service, and I shall write to the noble Lord. The number of notices affected by special circumstances within the meaning of the section for the same periods were five, three and one; there were no notices affected by special circumstances for the first two months of 2001. No special or general directions have been given under Section 194 of the Act.

Credit Cards: Contractual Relationship

Lord Harrison: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether, when credit cards are used, a legally-binding contract is established only when the authorisation slip is signed by the purchaser and not when the card is swiped through the machine.

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: A number of different contractual relationships arise when a purchase is made using a credit card, and I have confined myself in this response to the question of the contractual relationship between the buyer and the seller in respect of a sale of goods.
	In this context, the question of precisely when a legally binding contract is made will depend upon the principles of the law of contract, including those relating to offer and acceptance. The application of these principles will vary according to the facts of each case, and the time of payment (whether determined by reference to swiping a card or signing a slip authorising payment or some other event) will not necessarily be a material factor in pinpointing the time at which a contract was made.

Compact Discs: Cost

Lord Harrison: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What action they can take to reduce the cost of compact discs to British consumers to the level of their European Union counterparts.

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: A competition inquiry into the supply of compact discs was launched by the Office of Fair Trading on the 9th February. The inquiry will consider whether the way in which the record companies have responded to imports of cheaper CDs from elsewhere in the EU amounts to a breach of the Competition Act 1998. The inquiry is expected to take six months.

Mirror Group Pension Funds

Lord Naseby: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	When they expect to publish the report into the usage of the Mirror Group Newspapers' pension funds by the late Robert Maxwell.

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: No report is expected into the usage of Mirror Group Newspapers' pension funds by the late Robert Maxwell. However inspectors were appointed to investigate and report on the affairs and membership of Mirror Group Newspapers Plc and, in particular, to look at the flotation of the company in 1991. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State hopes to be in a position to make an announcement in the near future.

Older People and the NHS: Human Rights Provisions

Lord Lester of Herne Hill: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What provisions of the Human Rights Act 1998 and of the European Convention on Human Rights provide a means for patients who consider they have been discriminated against on grounds of age within the National Health Service to obtain an effective legal remedy.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: Section 7 of the Human Rights Act 1998 provides that an individual may invoke convention rights in any legal proceedings, including an application for judicial review, and also provides that individuals may bring cases on convention grounds alone. Aritcle 14 (Prohibition of Discrimination) of the European Convention on Human Rights provides for people to enjoy the protection of the convention rights without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status. This list is not exhaustive and could also include age, although it is not expressly mentioned. A case cannot be pursued on Article 14 grounds alone however; another convention right to which a claim of discrimination is attached must be involved. Discrimination for the purposes of Article 14 is a difference in treatment that has no reasonable and objective justification. In a health context, the articles most likely to be engaged are Article 2 (right to life), Article 3 (prohibition of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment) and Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life).
	The provision of first-class care in the National Health Service on the basis of clinical need is a priority. Discrimination of any kind--whether it is on the basis of age, race or gender--is completely unacceptable in the NHS and action is and will be taken to challenge and correct any such practices.
	The forthcoming National Service Framework (NSF) for Older People will for the first time set national standards and define service models for older people's health and social care. The NSF will also stipulate that age discrimination will not be tolerated in the NHS, ensuring that any arbitrary policies based on age alone are eliminated. The NSF will ensure fair access for older people to health and social care services and promote their dignity, security and independence.